


Past Lives

by sparkle__bitch



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Druid Lance (Voltron), Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Langst, Magic, Past Abuse, Past Torture, Psychological Torture, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-25 18:38:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14983175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparkle__bitch/pseuds/sparkle__bitch
Summary: Lance was kidnapped as a baby and raised by Druids. He escaped when he was a teenager and returned to Earth, creating a new life for himself, and later enrolled at the Garrison. This led to him joining Voltron, and eventually being tracked down by the Druids who reveal him for who Lance really is.





	Past Lives

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the first place winner of my most recent giveaway @/fanfic-recomends on tumblr! (Also full disclosure I don’t know what the druids look like aside from the fact that they wear those white masks and long cloaks so ? I made some shit up, like usual lmao.)
> 
> Follow me @prince-yoongi on tumblr if you want a chance to win my next giveaway!

“Goodnight” Lance smiled and nodded to Keith, who’s room was right next door to his. Keith nodded and then stepped into his own room. Lance closed the door behind him and activated the lock. He slumped against the door and let the glamor drop, completely exhausted. He’d used too much of his magic that day, and it drained all of his energy.

After a few minutes of resting Lance stood up and went to the bathroom and began to do his normal nighttime cleansing routine. He avoided looking in mirrors as much as possible. He hated his appearance. He only saw himself like this when he was alone and let his glamor fall. Only then did he see the real him that he so carefully hid behind a mask. He saw the fear and desperation in his gleaming yellow eyes.

He could still feel the large needles digging under his skin, looking for somewhere to inject the poison. Somewhere solid. Lance’s bones ached for years after the experiments finally ended. They had poked and prodded him until his skin was marred with scars and bruises, some of which never faded away. Lance’s face, that was the worst of it. One particular Druid had attempted to implant eyes on Lance’s forehead. The procedure hadn’t worked, but it left two large indents in the middle of his forehead. They were hideous. Pale pink scars covered his faintly purple skin.

Lance hated everything about the way he looked.

Lance had been normal once. He knew that for sure in his heart. He was a human, before. Before they took him. Before they ruined him. Lance liked to imagine that he came from a big family, one where he had a loving mother and an abundance of siblings whom he loved. He would spend hours daydreaming about the family that he was taken from, the family that loved him.

Then they had taken him. The Druids. They were the only family that Lance had ever really known. He lived there in space with them until he was 14. It was the only life he had known until that point. Aside from secret database searches in the middle of the night, Lance knew nothing about Earth, other than that’s where he came from. He didn’t look anything like other humans though. Because of the experiments he looked more like the Druids, which he believed was their intention.

He escaped their hold when he was 14. He used his magic on one of the lower Druids and then bolted to one of the smaller space-crafts that they used. He flew straight to Earth and never looked back. It was that flight to Earth that made gave him his love for flying. He lived on the streets for a few months before learning how to use his magic to look like the other humans. He gave himself a new name and a new look, and then forged papers to enroll in the garrison.

There… There he could finally become himself.

He could finally become Lance Mcclain, the son of the family that he had created in his mind. The family that saved him from the horrors of his reality for almost 15 years.

Lance let out a short breath and then continued lathering his face up with the blue lotion.

This was a secret that he would never tell.

Not even to his team.

~ ~

“Lance! Look out behind you!” Lance barely heard Hunk’s voice before something hit him square in the back. The shot somehow bounced off the glamor that Lance had up. Lance spun around and shot the shooter, and then laughed nervously.

“W- Wow that was a close one” he said, his smile straining. Hunk smiled but looked confused.

“Geez, Lance” he said scratching the back of his neck. “I thought for sure you got hit! Don’t scare me like that” he laughed. Lance shot him a lopsided grin and then turned away. His face broke, the pain radiating through his body. Even though the shot hadn’t left a mark, or seriously injured him the energy of the shot had to go somewhere. It was absorbed into his body. He was going to be seriously sore in the morning.

“Sorry” Lance said weakly as they continued walking. The forest seemed to come to life around them. The trees twisted and bent around them, creaking loudly.

“That’s so creepy” Hunk said warily. “Let’s get out of here” They had been chasing the last Galra soldier, but now that Lance had shot him they could head back to their lions.

It wasn’t until they were in the clearing where the others were waiting for them by their lions that Lance felt it. Eyes staring at him from behind.

Someone was watching him.

“Hunk” Lance whispered frantically. “Don’t move” Hunk froze. Shiro jumped off the foot of his lion and started toward them.

“Lance, what is it?” he asked. Lance held up his hand. Everyone stood completely still. Lance could feel their presence. The hair stood up on the back of his neck. The feeling was strange… familiar almost.

“I don’t know…” Lance went completely still as he strained to listen, to feel. He used his magic and tentatively reached out to the follower. The magic spread through the forest like a flood. He saw his friends in front of him, Hunk behind him, various animals scampering around, and—

Her.

It was like a rush of cold water running over Lance. He blinked his eyes and suddenly he was back there.

His home.

Or, the only home he had ever know.

The bright shining lights, the spark pricks of the needles all over his skin. The bitter liquid washing down his throat, his skin always too tight like it was being stretched thin across his body. The voice above him, telling him that this was a privilege, a gift. The sharp blade gliding across his forehead.

“No,” Lance shook his head. “No, no, no, no” This wasn’t happening. She couldn’t be here. How did she find him? “We have to go. Now” Lance said, the urgency was evident in his voice. Shiro seemed to notice this.

“Alright. Everyone in your lions. Let’s go” he instructed. It was too late. She was already here.

“Lance!” Pidge voice called out too late. Lance dropped to the ground, but he felt it. The magic hit him straight in the chest. He buried his face in the grass as he felt the usual cool feeling of his magic fade. His body tensed as he realized what was happening.

“Oh my god, Lance!” Hunk screamed, dropping to his knees to see what had hit Lance. Shiro, Pidge, and Keith spread out, their bayards drawn.

Lance hissed in pain and tried to bury any part of exposed skin. His glamor was down, he had to hide it from the others until he could cover himself up.

“What was that!?” Pidge exclaimed as they searched the perimeter. Lance couldn’t think of anything to say, so he kept silent, trying to pull his magic out from within himself. It was like it was stuck.

Then he heard it.

“Andez” A chill went down Lance’s spine, basically paralyzing him. He hadn’t heard that voice in years. “So long we have searched for you” her rough voice rang out through the clearing, though no one knew from where. Lance tried to lower himself further into the grass. Why was she here? HowHow was was she here? “Oh, right. You go by a new name. A human name. Did you think that that would protect you from us?” she asked, laughing manically. “You had to know that I would come for you someday, my son. Lance” Lance held his breath, feeling the eyes off everyone on him.

“Lance, who is that?” Hunk asked in confusion. “Do you know her?” Lance grit his teeth and tried to use his magic to cover himself up again.

“I- I- Uh…” Lance grunted and discretely pulled his hand up so that he could see it. Still purple. “Dammit” he cursed under his breath.

“Andez” The Druid appeared in the middle of the clearing, throwing up multiple shields around her as she did. Everyone began shooting at her at once, but they all bounced off.

“Everyone stop!” Pidge shouted. “They’re just going to hit us!” Everyone stopped shooting, but kept their weapons pointed at the cloaked woman. Lance lifted his chin out of the dirt and peeked at the woman, praying that he was wrong.

That it wasn’t really his mother.

“Andez, come” she instructed. “It’s time to come home” Her voice was sharp and bitter, the same as Lance remembered it. Lance was paralyzed with fear. He never thought he was going to see her again. He had barely escaped the first time; how would he get away this time? Was he going to have to leave his team? Start over on another planet, starting a new life?

“Andez? What are you talking about? Who are you?” Shiro demanded to know, taking a step toward her. She was still making her way to Lance. His body shook with every step she took. She couldn’t touch him anymore. She couldn’t hurt him.

She couldn’t.

“Leave me alone” Lance pleaded. “Please”

“Look at me when you speak” she spat, casting her magic at Lance, lifting him off the ground. He screamed and clawed at the dirt, trying to resist. He was too weak. She had somehow drained him of his magic. “Face me you coward! I raised you better than this” She screamed. Lance covered his face in a last-ditch effort to conceal his secret. It was no use.

“Lance… what…” Lance squeezed his eyes shut and dropped his hands in defeat, revealing the true horror of his appearance. The clearing fell silent as the others finally saw Lance for who he really was.

They finally saw Andez.

They saw the scars, the healed over gashes, the poorly treated burn marks that never really went away. They saw everything that Lance had tried to keep from them for so long. The skin color that Lance so desperately tried to hide, the incisions on his forehead. Every inch of him that he hated.

“Wh- what is going on?” Keith was the first one to speak up. They were all standing around in various forms of shock. “Why do you- What did she do to you!?” Lance bit his lip so hard he was afraid that it would bleed.

“I did nothing to him” the Druid spoke. “This is who he truly is. He is one of us—” A spark of anger ran through Lance. He was never one of them. He never wanted to be. They had stolen him from Earth, from his true family, and turned him into this. He never asked for it. He never wanted it.

“Shut up!” Lance screamed, his eyes flying open. The woman smiled, her mouth curving up revealing her pointed teeth. Lance was seething. “I am not one of you! And you are not my mother! I never was” he exclaimed loudly. He clenched his fists at his sides. Lance didn’t dare look at the others. He couldn’t bare to see their reactions to his appearance. They were probably disgusted. “You stole me. You beat me. Tortured me. Abused me” Lance said, his chest heaving. He was saying all the things that he never had a chance to when he was younger. “My entire life, you hurt me. All for what? So, I could become one of you? Why would you do that?” he cried. That was the only thing he didn’t understand.

What was it all for?

“Why not just raise a Druid? Why would you go through all of that trouble for me…” Lance said, his face contorting in confusion and pain. He didn’t get it. It made no sense.

“Andez, I told you why. You are my son” she said calmly, pausing her stride across the clearing for the first time.

“I’m not—”

“You’re my son” She stressed. Lance’s mouth dropped open as he began to protest but then he froze. Her face twisted in sick glee. “Yes, that’s right. You are my biological son” It felt like Lance’s entire life was crumbling down around him.

He couldn’t be. She couldn’t be—

“How? Wh- Why?” he breathed, staring down at his hands in horror. He had her blood… her DNA.

“Your father was human” she explained coldly. “I discarded him after I had you. I had no need for him. I thought that perhaps you would have unique abilities because of your humanity, but unfortunately that was not the case” Lance staggered backward. It was like no one else existed there except him and the woman. “The events that you called ‘torture’ was merely a way to draw out your power. I always knew that you were capable of so much more”

“But I thought…” Lance whispered.

“You were from Earth? Yes, that was a rumor started by some of the lower-class Druids. Some didn’t believe that you were truly my child” Lance shook his head in disbelief. There was no way. “Now, back to the matter at hand” she said, continuing toward Lance, who was still backing away from her. “I let you have your little ‘teenage rebellion’ but now it’s time for you to come home. I still have work to do with you”

“I’m never going back with you” Lance spat, standing his ground.

“You escaped from me once” The woman said, now enraged. “I will not let it happen again” he raised her hands and lunged at Lance. Lance lifted his arms instinctually and felt a burst of magic bubble up inside him. He let out a gasp as he released the magic, it closed around him and then—

When Lance opened his eyes, he didn’t recognize his surroundings. It took him a few moments to realize that he had teleported himself back to the castle. His heart was still racing. The last thing he had seen was his mother’s face, full of rage, charging at him. His instincts had kicked him and gotten him out of there. He didn’t even know he could teleport.

Lance picked himself up off the ground and then immediately headed toward his room. He knew what he had to do now.

~ ~

“Is she dead?” Lance asked without turning around. It had been several hours since he was teleported back to the castle. His question was met with silence.

That was all the answer he needed.

Lance didn’t know what he was feeling. Relief? Sorrow? She was the woman who had abused him for over a decade. She was his mother.

Lance took a deep breath and then resumed shoving all his clothes into a bag.

“What are you doing?” Shiro asked. Hunk, Pidge, and Keith were standing next to Shiro, all crammed in Lance’s tiny room.

“Packing” he said simply.

“Where are you going?” Pidge asked.

“I lied to you guys about who I was. Now that you know… It’s time for me to move on” Lance explained. He figured they already knew that. There was no way he could stay now.

“Wh- what?” Hunk stuttered. “You’re leaving? You can’t leave!”

“I can’t stay here” Lance said, bracing his arms against the dresser drawer. “None of you want me here anyone. A- a- Druid. A half-breed” he cringed as he said the words.

“Lance, we don’t care about who you are” Shiro said. Lance flinched. “I, uh- that’s not what I meant. I just meant that we, uh, well, we don’t hate you for looking like that- er…”

“Lance, we don’t care what you are” Keith said abruptly, cutting off Shiro’s nervous rambling. Shiro’s shoulders slumped in relief. “I mean look at me, I’m half Galra” he said with a shrug.

“Yeah, and when you all met me you thought I was a boy, no one cared when I said I was a girl” Pidge added. Hunk nodded vigorously.

“Exactly! It doesn’t matter what you are, we just care about you. We love you Lance, no matter what you look like”

“Y- Yeah” Shiro said in agreement. “That’s what I was trying to say” Lance leaned back and look around at his friends. His family.

“You- you guys really don’t care?” Lance stuttered nervously. He desperately wanted them to accept him. No one had ever accepted him.

“Of course not” Hunk reassured him, gently taking the bag out of Lance’s hand and setting it on the floor. “So please, stay with us. Stay with Voltron” he pleaded. “We’re your family” Lance wiped his eyes as he turned to look at the others.

“Okay…” he nodded. “I’ll stay” Hunk broke out into a grin and bear-hugged Lance.


End file.
